I’m going to be honest about something many people don’t talk about openly.
I struggled with porn use for over a decade. It started as a teenager, became habitual, and eventually felt compulsive. I didn’t want to use it as much as I did. But I kept going back.
Years of trying to quit — white-knuckling, internet blockers, shame spirals — led to a cycle of abstinence and relapse that felt endless.
What eventually helped was understanding the pattern differently and using self-hypnosis to work with the underlying drivers. Here’s my experience.
Why this habit is so hard to break
Porn activates the reward system more powerfully than almost anything encountered in ancestral environments.
Novel partners at every click. Superstimuli. Instant access. Unlimited variety. The brain’s dopamine system wasn’t designed for this kind of abundance.
The result, for many, is conditioning that runs deep:
- Boredom → urge → use → relief/shame → boredom
- Stress → urge → use → relief/shame → more stress
- Loneliness → urge → use → relief/shame → more loneliness
Each cycle reinforces the pathway. The behaviour becomes automatic. Willpower alone rarely breaks it because willpower isn’t what’s driving the behaviour.
The shame problem
Here’s something important: shame makes recovery harder.
The cycle often includes intense shame after use. “I’m disgusting. I’m broken. What’s wrong with me?”
Shame feels like it should motivate change. In practice, shame creates more stress, more discomfort, more reaching for relief. Which means more use.
Breaking free requires addressing the shame as much as the behaviour itself. You can’t hate yourself into health.
Why I turned to hypnosis
I tried everything else first.
Blockers — worked until I found workarounds. Accountability partners — helped but felt humiliating. Cold showers and pushups — briefly distracting but not transformative.
What I noticed was that none of these addressed the urge itself. They created barriers around the behaviour, but the drive remained underneath, constantly looking for weakness.
Hypnosis offered something different: working with the unconscious patterns directly. Not fighting urges, but changing them.
How hypnosis sessions worked
The sessions I used approached it like any conditioned behaviour:
Deep relaxation. Getting into a receptive, focused state where the usual mental chatter quiets.
Exploring the trigger. What feeling or situation precedes the urge? Boredom, stress, loneliness, specific times of day?
Understanding the underlying need. What am I actually seeking? Connection, excitement, escape, comfort?
Building alternative responses. When the trigger arises, what else could meet the need? What would genuinely help rather than temporarily numb?
Visualising the free version. Who am I without this pattern? What does that life look like? How does that version of me handle urges?
Direct suggestion. The behaviour becomes less compelling. The urges become signals to meet real needs. The alternative responses become natural.
This isn’t about suppressing or fighting. It’s about changing the underlying architecture of the habit.
What changed
Progress wasn’t linear. There were setbacks. But the overall trajectory shifted.
First, the urges became… less demanding. Still present, but not screaming. I could notice them without acting automatically.
Second, when urges arose, I started asking what I actually needed instead of reaching for the old behaviour. Often the answer was connection, rest, stimulation — things porn superficially addresses but never satisfies.
Third, the shame decreased. I could slip without spiralling. A lapse was a data point, not proof of being broken.
Fourth, time between urges lengthened. What was daily became weekly became manageable.
I won’t claim complete “cure.” This isn’t that kind of problem. But relationship changed from compulsive to conscious. That’s meaningful.
The role of hypnosis vs. other approaches
Let me be clear about what hypnosis is and isn’t:
Hypnosis isn’t magic. One session won’t fix deeply conditioned patterns.
Hypnosis isn’t replacement for therapy. If porn use is connected to trauma, relationship issues, or deeper psychological patterns, professional support matters.
Hypnosis isn’t the only thing needed. Environmental changes, lifestyle adjustments, sometimes medication — all can play a role.
What hypnosis offers is direct access to the unconscious patterns driving the behaviour. It’s one powerful tool in what should probably be a comprehensive approach.
Practical approach
If you want to try this:
Be specific about your pattern. When, where, what triggers it, how long, what happens after.
Use hypnosis sessions targeted at the habit. Generic relaxation won’t address this specifically. You need sessions that work with the actual pattern.
Address shame explicitly. Self-compassion is essential for recovery. Hypnosis can help build this too.
Have alternative behaviours ready. When an urge arises, what will you actually do? Exercise, call someone, go outside, create something?
Consider professional support. Therapists specialising in behavioural addiction can offer structure and guidance hypnosis alone can’t.
Be patient with yourself. Recovery isn’t linear. The goal is trajectory, not perfection.
Using AI hypnosis for this
At InTheMoment, you can get hypnosis sessions specifically for habit change around porn/compulsive sexual behaviour.
The check-in before each session lets you describe where you’re at — the triggers, the frequency, what you’ve tried, what you’re struggling with.
The session then addresses your specific situation. Not generic advice, but targeted work on your particular pattern.
This is sensitive territory. The app handles it respectfully. You’re talking to an AI, which for some makes the honesty easier than talking to a human.
Two free sessions per day. Worth trying as one tool in recovery.
You’re not alone
Porn addiction is common and rarely discussed.
If you’re struggling, know that millions of others are too. You’re not uniquely broken. You’re a normal human whose reward system encountered superstimuli it wasn’t designed for.
Recovery is possible. It takes time, often support, and genuine work on the underlying patterns.
Self-hypnosis has been valuable in my own journey. It might help in yours too.
Working on porn or compulsive sexual behaviour patterns? Get started with two free sessions per day — self-hypnosis offers a shame-free way to work on the habit directly.